Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from San Antonio

Ban the Banner

It’s no secret I am upset by the overabundance of illegal signs in the Alamo Plaza Historic District. But sometimes you are so pestered by fleas you fail to notice the Tyrannosaurus rex coming up behind you.

proposed life-size Alamo to hang next to the grounds of the Alamo itself

Well, this one happens to be 134-feet tall, and the staff of the city’s Historic Preservation Office has no problem with it hanging adjacent to the Alamo grounds for six or seven months. Perhaps they were swayed because the application to install the banner on the Emily Morgan Hotel is coming from the caretakers of the Alamo itself, none other than the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who brought us an earlier tasteful banner installation and a pop-up tent.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have trouble understanding why a 2 1/2-story image of the Alamo needs to be installed within 1/2 block of the actual Alamo. Is this new Alamo going to be bigger and better than the real one?

If the members of the Historic Design and Review Commission decide to follow staff’s recommendation and let this Behemoth banner sail through on the consent agenda at the August 4th meeting, I hope they at least attach a recycling amendment. The used banner could be donated to the Women’s Pavilion; a banner that size would make a lot of tote bags. Or probably more appropriately, the banner could be recycled to protect the Alamo roof from water seepage. That way, the Daughters would not have to worry about increasing their preservation budget to anything above the three-digit numbers of the past several years.

P.S. Sarah Reveley has started posting photographs showcasing Alamo Plaza intrusions on a new website.

P.S.S. I would worry more about the tasteful banner on Main Plaza Ben Olivo posted earlier, but guess we should not stop to scratch a flea when a T-rex is barreling this way.

Update on August 4: With instructions to lose the Emily Morgan logo, ditch the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s “Deep in the Heart” campaign image and send the little figures scurrying around the bottom of the banner – the ones that look like Mexican toy soldiers racing to escape the gift shop – packing, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas received approval for a scaled-down, 80-foot-tall banner to be hung on a historic landmark in a historic district for seven months.

The purpose of having a larger Alamo hanging next door to the real Alamo remains unclear after listening to the continually shifting explanations. When the presenters realized the concept of advertising the Alamo (and thanking the Emily Morgan) to motorists on the highway was sounding exactly like a super-sized billboard to those sitting in judgment, the banner instead became an educational tool to inspire awe in pedestrians. Bruce Winders, PhD, the Alamo’s historian and curator, said it would make children realize the Alamo is important and even labeled the banner “art.” Tony Caridi, the Alamo’s director of development who designed the banner, might have beamed with pride, if not for board member Harry Shafer’s suggestion that it should then also go before the Public Art Board for review.

Caridi expressed his opinion that curtailing the size of the banner would make it look more like a sign. It will not look more like a sign, it will just look like a slightly smaller sign with slightly less square footage than two highway-size billboards, still representing a major visual intrusion in the Alamo Plaza Historic District.

Despite being told by one of Davy Crockett’s descendants that a 13-story banner is what Davy would want, four board members dared to stand fast behind the newly revised Unified Development Code passed by City Council only this summer. But, alas, the code was no more effective a shield than the crumbling Alamo walls in 1836. They were outnumbered. The banner will hang.

As for the banner’s future life, Caridi said they were lifting my earlier suggestion, which I lifted from the Women’s Pavilion, and plan to recycle the banner into tote bags to sell in the gift shop. Guess he did not like the suggestion to recycle it as a rain bonnet for the Alamo roof.

Update on August 5: Scott Huddleston of the Express-News on the shrunken banner:

Caridi and Bruce Winders, Alamo historian, said the banner would send a statement to visitors and locals that the landmark anniversary of Texas independence offers an exciting occasion to revisit true stories of the past.

“It’s the opportunity to say the Texas Revolution isn’t just a movie. It isn’t just John Wayne,” Winders said.

Now, when I first read about the theme for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas’ 175th Anniversary Gala, my thought was it was a guaranteed success. But Dr. Winders’ statement confuses me greatly because the caretakers are centering much of the celebration on guess what? John Wayne’s role in The Alamo.

Honoring the 50th Anniversary of John Wayne’s movie “The Alamo”. The sixth Alamo Gala will be held under the Texas stars on Alamo Plaza. All proceeds will go toward preservation, education, and maintenance of The Alamo Complex.

Silent and Live Auctions; Colonial Menu of appetizers and buffet dinner; Music and dancing to St. Vincent and the Grenadines featuring a custom arrangement of music from the score of the movie.

Reel History: John Wayne’s Alamo 50th Anniversary Exhibition will premiere the evening of the Gala. The exhibition will feature movie memobriila from around the nation including items from the DRT Library, John Wayne Enterprises private collection, and other collectors. Organized by John Farkis and Dr. Bruce Winders, Alamo Historian, the exhibit will be free to the public beginning October 10 – December 31, 2010.

Now I understand. Since the exhibit housed in the Alamo compound will focus on the movie The Alamo, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas need a really, really, really big – a Behemoth – banner to try to remind people that, despite the exhibit on the movie they are showcasing, “the Texas Revolution isn’t just a movie. It isn’t just John Wayne.”

3rd Update on August 5: And on KTSA Radio, Rolette Schreckenghost said:

Goodness knows I’m a native and I’ve never lived anywhere but San Antonio, but I don’t need a sign to remind me to remember the Alamo…. It’s the cultural integrity of San Antonio that people come to see.

Update on August 7: Veronica Flores-Paniagua of the Express-News questions the appropriateness of Caridi’s banner design: “Why didn’t the DRT see that?”

I keep wondering how in the world the DRT will possibly handle the potentially explosive land mines involved in mounting the 50th anniversary exhibit centering on The Alamo. How will the DRT distinguish “real” from “reel” with appropriate respect for historical accuracy? The banner does not seem like it is going to help; the curators have their work cut out for them.

Update on August 12: Revised on August 13 following article in the Express-News (Didn’t mean to jump the gun. I think sometimes a request accompanied by a please receives more positive results than immediate escalation to threats of legal action.):

The sound of Davy Crockett’s lone fiddle echoing from the ramparts of the wall around the Alamo will be multiplied _________________________________________ as part of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas’ celebration of the 175th anniversary of the battle, ______________ _________ _________, maybe this will encourage a round-up and removal of all illegal signage prior to focusing that much national and perhaps international media attention on the plaza.

Update on August 14: The DRT does now have an image on its website promoting a March 5th “Symphony Concert.” So that part is official and those who mention it need no longer fear legal action.

Update on August 15: Something was nagging me. Personally, my concern is the proliferation of signage in the Alamo Plaza Historic District, not the anniversary celebration itself. But somehow I remembered reading about the anniversary concert earlier. Was Sarah Reveley really the one to spill the beans, or did someone else? The following is from a July 6 article in the Dallas Morning News:

Caridi said that the Alamo’s operations were not threatened by the current lull, but that new programs and offerings could be scratched.

He said it has been difficult, for instance, persuading corporate sponsors to come on board for a nearly $400,000 concert being planned for next year’s 175th anniversary of the famous battle at the Alamo.

My family history includes the story that when Davy Crockett came to East Texas, wearing a black stovepipe hat, en route he stayed with our family. Legend is Crockett admired the coonskin hat worn by a young man of the household and offered to trade his black hat plus a gold piece for the young man’s coonskin hat. The deal was struck and thus historical tableaus guaranteed!

What’s real and what’s reel, and how does one ever distinguish myth from reality?

Update on August 28:

Weel, blude’s thicker than water; she’s welcome to the cheeses and the hams just the same.

Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, 1815

Checked on membership requirements this morning. As someone not from Texas, I always thought your proof of revolutionary bloodline was all that was needed to qualify for membership in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. But ancestry is the secondary half of the requirements for admission into the sisterhood of approximately 6,700. While the organization professes to encourage “anyone with a love of Texas history to join us in celebrating and preserving this heritage,” the first part of its requirements is that a woman “is personally acceptable to The DRT.”

According to the San Antonio Express-News this morning, the Daughters officially are disowning the Texas Centennial-obsessed, Alamobsessed, whistle-blowing daughter they wish they never had, Sarah Reveley – a rather late-term abortion. Sarah is now severely sentenced to endure shunning by many of her former siblings for the rest of her life. Never having been in a sorority, I am unsure how this would affect one.

But do I believe banishment is an Alamoment for Sarah? Don’t think so. She is too busy dedicating her energies to tracking down missing monuments dating from the celebration of the Texas Centennial.

You might question why I inserted the second part of Scott’s quotation, with good reason. When I was looking for the meaning, I turned to the primary source. It is hardly applicable. But in wandering randomly through Guy Mannering, I found another reference to cheese with a footnoted explanatory text relating to small-town life that I loved more than Scott’s writing:

The groaning malt mentioned in the text was the ale brewed for the purpose of being drunk after the lady or goodwife’s safe delivery. The ken-no has a more ancient source, and perhaps the custom may be derived from the secret rites of the Bona Dea. A large and rich cheese was made by the women of the family, with great affectation of secrecy, for the refreshment of the gossips who were to attend at the ‘canny’ minute. This was the ken-no, so called because its existence was secret (that is, presumed to be so) from all the males of the family, but especially from the husband and master. He was accordingly expected to conduct himself as if he knew of no such preparation, to act as if desirous to press the female guests to refreshments, and to seem surprised at their obstinate refusal. But the instant his back was turned the ken-no was produced; and after all had eaten their fill, with a proper accompaniment of the groaning malt, the remainder was divided among the gossips, each carrying a large portion home with the same affectation of great secrecy.

Update on September 24: I felt Jan Jarboe Russell stayed so completely on the tightrope without tipping either direction in her Texas Monthly article about recent issues involving the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the Alamo that I was left blogless. The headline was the most sensational part of the article. Shows it all depends on your perspective.

According to a thread posted on Texas Centennial, the Daughters viewed the article differently:

President General’s Remarks:
An expulsion hearing is set for October 29th for Sarah Reveley, DRT member.
Regarding the Texas Monthly article concerning the Daughters, the author had spent a full day at the Alamo seeing and hearing about all the good things happening at the Alamo, but he chose not to include the positive notes.

Although, when Jan spent a whole day at the Alamo, seems they might have noticed she’s a woman.

And, to further blur the line between reel and real, the DRT, the Alamo and IMAX are partnering to bring John Wayne’s The Alamo to a theater near you on Friday, October 8. Click here to get $1.50 off your ticket.

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3 thoughts on “Ban the Banner”

Have they done any kind of study on the Emily Morgan Hotel to see if
she can withstand the sheer weight of something this size? What is this
“banner” going to be made from? How is it to be mounted? Is it secured
on both ends and along the sides so the wind doesn’t whip it around and
rip it from it’s mooring? I feel sure they think that something this
sizable would gain the attention of every tourist for ‘miles
around’ and direct them to the Alamo. Is the former Medical Arts
Building (built in 1924) not worthy of any consideration for her safety?
I guess I could add that maybe the ghosts who reside in the Emily Morgan
can take care of this themselves…